Republican would commute, split time here
Staff writer
Assistant Morris County prosecutor Michelle Brown filed an affidavit of write-in candidacy Friday for the position of Marion County attorney.
A Republican, Brown has been assistant Morris County attorney since May. If elected in Marion County, she’ll continue serving in Morris County as well.
Incumbent Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey, who declined to file for re-election, has complained that the workload in his office is more than full time.
As this year’s election loomed and nobody filed to run for Marion County attorney, Judge Ben Sexton asked Brown if he could appoint her Marion County attorney after the first of the year.
Brown worked as a public defender in Sexton’s Eighth Judicial District from February, 1996, until July, 2005, when she became a Geary County prosecutor.
In July, 2022, she retired from working full time and has taken court appointments as a defense attorney in criminal cases and done guardian-ad-litem work.
She plans to commute here if elected. She and her spouse operate a farm and animal sanctuary in Douglas County.
The operation, Tallgrass Parrot Sanctuary, began, as the name suggests, as a sanctuary for parrots.
It now is home to 57 parrots, six pigs, geese, ducks, tortoises, and a horse.
Brown said sometimes they find animals on their property when they come out the door in the morning.
“I have 150 animals and I’ve commuted for many years,” Brown said.
She sees a need for a different outlook in the Marion County attorney’s office.
“You need a prosecutor who will consistently be an arm of the court and also cooperate with law enforcement,” Brown said. “The county attorney must be an independent entity and must treat everybody the same and everybody equally.”
County residents need access to their county officials, she said.
One concern she has is the amount of caseload she will have between both Morris and Marion County.
“The caseload does not decrease, but I have to split my time with Morris County,” she said.
While she’s not opposed to plea agreements, not every case is the same.
“Most cases can be resolved by plea agreements,” she said.
Cases involving live victims, as opposed to drug cases or similar cases, are not the same, she said.
She doesn’t think a charge should be vastly reduced in a plea agreement.
“If you’re going to bring a charge, there’s not a lot of reason to reduce a charge very far,” she said.
For cases involving drugs such as methamphetamine, she’s talked to the judicial district’s community corrections director and wants to bring a drug court system here.
With about 2½ weeks before the election, she won’t have much time to visit Marion County, but she said if a group reached out to her for a meeting, she would work to find a way to accommodate the request.